Mary Regan

To say it's a great day for the party is an understatement.

Tessa, this is the first episode of Seachtain.

There's a new episode every Tuesday with stories and stories about your life on the island.

It was like I was talking to the audience team.

Hello and welcome to this special edition of IndoPolitics with me, Mary Regan and Conall Thomas, where we sit down for a wide-ranging chat with the Justice Minister, Jim O'Callaghan.

We talk about migration.

Those comments by the former Taoiseach.

No racist.

And the long wait to become Fianna Fáil leader.

Is that something you can relate to?

Thank you, Minister, for coming into our studios here in the Irish Independent in Independent House.

Conall and I have a lot to discuss with you, but I just want to start with something that is a pretty live controversy right now.

And that is the secret recording of the former Taoiseach Bertie Hearn at a doorstep in Dublin Central.

And he was recorded as saying, the one thing I do worry about is the Africans.

Do you see those racist comments as racist?

Should he apologise?

But do his comments risk legitimising what might be considered more, you know, far-right, extreme views on migration that aren't helpful to that discussion that you talk about?

And he did say that he had concerns about the next generation of Muslims living in this country and that he discussed those concerns with you.

So what kind of conversations have you had with Bertie Ahern and do you share those concerns?

Are you saying in some ways that people are sort of afraid to talk about this?